Faith in GOD

Faith is complete trust or confidence in something or someone. Today I am going to talk about this trust and confidence in supreme power (GOD) who is above all of us.

I remember when I was young, I used to visit temples with my grandmother and she used to tell me about all our Indian Gods, Lord Ram, Lord Shiva, Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and many more. She was a staunch believer in all the Gods. My mother is a believer of Maa Vaishno Devi and my father and elder brother is an atheist. I was very young when I was struggling with my faith in God, slowly I started praying all GODS according to my convenience.

For me GOD was someone with supreme power who would just fulfil all wishes and if my wish was not granted I would complain and feel betrayed by him as I had prayed a lot to him. My mother taught me to have gratitude and I followed her instructions.

As I grew up a little older, I would just pray to all GODS, bow down before them and would follow all the rituals of my family (over a period of time, I actually enjoyed them).

My grandmother passed away and so my maternal grandmother came to live with us. I was very happy, but then again, I started struggling with my faith in which GOD as she was a committed devotee of Lord Krishna. I would see her doing all the daily rituals of Lord Krishna and slowly I also followed her footsteps. Gently, I completely forgot of all the other deities I prayed earlier.

God had planned something great for me, as I got married in a Jain family and now I started worshipping all Jain Gods as well, following their rituals (happily). Irony is, now I was praying to all the GODS (Hindu and Jain) happily but mechanically.

Now I am going to share about my learnings, thoughts and perception about faith in GOD that I have developed and acquired over a period of years.

1. In my opinion, there is an acquired faith and a developed faith.

Acquired faith is one, wherein an individual acquires faith by observing and following family practices. It is very natural, that when we follow a religion from childhood, we automatically have faith in that religion, GOD and Deity. Acquired faith can also arise from the society beliefs and practices.

Developed faith is one wherein an individual seeks and finds a path of his/her faith. The reasons for the same can be many, you were facing a problem in life which got resolved by praying a particular deity or GOD. It is also possible that while learning about various deities, while researching and reading about them, you seek faith in a particular deity. Or you are enlightened by your inner voice towards a particular religion or GOD and you develop faith subsequently. The reasons can be many but it is a path to seek your faith.

2. I think it is very important that once you have faith in GOD, never doubt your faith: your faith should be as strong as a baby has in his/her parents. The baby trusts that parents would never leave his/her hand, would never leave him in distress and suffering. That is the confidence required by us in GOD. It should be as strong as the oak tree, whose roots are not uprooted even in a hurricane. No matter what adversity arises in front of us, we should keep our conviction strong in GOD or whomsoever we pray.

3. Faith is neither right or wrong, neither it is superior or subordinate: it is simply your trust and confidence in that deity, the supreme power. It is inner peace, harmony and confidence you get from deep within your heart, so question does not arise of whose faith or religion is better, stronger and powerful. It is not questionable also, as faith simply means trust in some supreme power and we cannot contest anyone’s faith.

I particularly feel that within families also, if an individual is seeking faith in GOD or religion different from what the family believes in, one must give that space and liberty. One must remember and realise that there is no opposition in this, no competition, no supremacy, it is simply a confidence an individual has in a deity different from other family members.

4. Sufferings and struggles in life make our faith go through an exam. It is only when we are faced with a difficulty in life, our faith in GOD is put to test. To pass in the test, I personally feel that our trust and conviction should not shake, just keep your faith strong and keep repeating that GOD is there to help me sail through, he is there to protect and look after me.

Sometimes what happens, as a parent we deliberately leave our child alone, we intentionally make our child go through tough situation, but we never stop focusing on him rather keep observing the child’s progress more closely, that’s what GOD does with us when he gives us hard times. He is more closely observing us and will give his hand if we are drowning, all we need to do is trust him.

5. Now, comes the most important part, what if the result of the test, the result of the adversity in our life is not according to what I had wished for. It is like, you were expecting to clear your entrance exam or expecting promotion, or expecting to come out of any illness leading healthy life, but the result was complete opposite. Rather you failed, so the natural reaction would be sadness, anger, confusion, irritation and maybe loss of faith in GOD. I think, we need to question ourselves, “is it the end of life”? “is there nothing left for me in the world”? Even if the answers to these questions is YES but with an iota of doubt, answer is YES but slight NO in mind, then consider yourself very lucky as there is ignition of hope and positivity in you.

All that needs to be done is to bring back faith in GOD, look for other opportunities and keep doing hard work.

I as an individual have both acquired faith and developed faith. I follow all my Jain and Hindu rituals with utmost sincerity. I developed my faith in Nichiren Daishonin Buddhism of Lotus Sutra. I sought my faith in Bhagwat Geeta, Hanuman Chalisa and Gosho teachings of Nichiren Daishonin of Lotus Sutra.

In all these years I have learned that you can pray to as many GODS as you wish to, have faith in as many deities as you want but keep your conscious pure and clear as you are answerable only to it. What is more important is becoming a good person from your words, expression, action and thoughts no matter which GOD you believe in.

Disclaimer: these are purely my thoughts with no intention to hurt anyone’s sentiments, religion and GOD.